Green Maned Lion
Engineer
Yesterday, as culmination of a week of ridiculous off-the-wall scheduling so as to be able to make money driving someone to the airport, of all the horrible places, we took a rail trip to newark and such, which I will probably detail in the travelogue section later today. Anyway, the train trip home involved the first time I have heard of Comet VIs operating on the North Jersey Coast Line. They were used on the 4:05 Friday train out of Newark, I think its the 3:50 trip out of NYPenn. I know its the last off-peak train south. I've taken it before- its usually standing room only out of Newark. Due to the extra room provided by the new equipment, however, nobody stood.
Pros:
The new cars have some good features. The view provided by them on the upper deck is such that I saw things on the line previously hidden from view by trackside foliage. The elimination of the dreaded 3-person seat and the resultant widening of all seats, combined with the more anatomically shaped seats make this car considerably more comfortable than its predecessors. It is commendable that this was managed while increasing overall car capacity considerably. The folding armrests on the seats compared to the fixed ones on previous Comet designs are also a bonus, making egress and ingress much easier and more dignified.
Cons:
Unfortunately, there are quite a few of these. Amtrak seems to have figured out a pretty good suspension setup for their Superliners such that they sway, but are not prone to what I'd call "head-toss". The sway of the new Comet VIs is what I'd call "excessive". It often felt more like riding on a boat than a train, to be honest. The ability to empty the train is somewhat inhibited by the lack of center-doors, and it can create a problem when the people in the standing areas block people in the seating areas from exiting. Obviously, designing center doors into this car would greatly compromise its capacity, but the point does stand.
Next, I don't know about the rest of the system, but on the North Jersey Coast Line, there are several locations were, even with the old cars, the trains would be too long to fully platform. This would especially be the case in Long Branch, where the train often would be diverted to the yard early in its travel, and sometimes as few as two cars could platform. With the single level design of the old Comet cars, they would simply pull the train to the point where the first X cars that fit would have their doors open and people detraining would be told perhaps 3 to 5 minute prior to the stop to walk forward. Due to the single level nature and automatic doors on the earlier Comet cars, this would not be a problem.
Unfortunately, this is a bigger problem on the new Comet VIs because of the fact that walking through 3 or 4 cars means ascending and descending six to eight flights of stairs. I suspect that either platforms will need to be lengthened, cars will need to be assigned, or they will need to make multiple stops, because for some people, especially older people, this can be a serious problem.
The next issue is a tiny one- the arm rests are a bit too low to be useful for resting my arms.
And the last issue concerns the placement of the luggage racks. Due to the much lower height inherent to building a bi-level car suited to fitting into the North Shore Tunnels, the overall clearance of the car is low- some particularly tall people on the train had to bow their heads a bit- There seems to be about 6'5" of clearance or so- and that means the luggage racks are tiny, can only fit a small briefcase, and are placed poorly. Now, I admit, when I rode this train yesterday, I had been awake for more than 24 hours. I'd admit that I was coming off a red-bull overdose. I'll admit that part of this was probably caused by the above factors. But the fact of the matter is, I, who at 5' 11", am not particularly tall, smashed myself in the side of the head on the luggage rack hard enough to be even more woozy. This may have influenced my entire review, to be honest.
But given their limited usability, their inconvenient and possibly dangerous positioning within the car, and the fact that a good percentage of their core riders are often woozy due to alcohol consumed in Penn Station, I wonder why they included the racks at all.
Pros:
The new cars have some good features. The view provided by them on the upper deck is such that I saw things on the line previously hidden from view by trackside foliage. The elimination of the dreaded 3-person seat and the resultant widening of all seats, combined with the more anatomically shaped seats make this car considerably more comfortable than its predecessors. It is commendable that this was managed while increasing overall car capacity considerably. The folding armrests on the seats compared to the fixed ones on previous Comet designs are also a bonus, making egress and ingress much easier and more dignified.
Cons:
Unfortunately, there are quite a few of these. Amtrak seems to have figured out a pretty good suspension setup for their Superliners such that they sway, but are not prone to what I'd call "head-toss". The sway of the new Comet VIs is what I'd call "excessive". It often felt more like riding on a boat than a train, to be honest. The ability to empty the train is somewhat inhibited by the lack of center-doors, and it can create a problem when the people in the standing areas block people in the seating areas from exiting. Obviously, designing center doors into this car would greatly compromise its capacity, but the point does stand.
Next, I don't know about the rest of the system, but on the North Jersey Coast Line, there are several locations were, even with the old cars, the trains would be too long to fully platform. This would especially be the case in Long Branch, where the train often would be diverted to the yard early in its travel, and sometimes as few as two cars could platform. With the single level design of the old Comet cars, they would simply pull the train to the point where the first X cars that fit would have their doors open and people detraining would be told perhaps 3 to 5 minute prior to the stop to walk forward. Due to the single level nature and automatic doors on the earlier Comet cars, this would not be a problem.
Unfortunately, this is a bigger problem on the new Comet VIs because of the fact that walking through 3 or 4 cars means ascending and descending six to eight flights of stairs. I suspect that either platforms will need to be lengthened, cars will need to be assigned, or they will need to make multiple stops, because for some people, especially older people, this can be a serious problem.
The next issue is a tiny one- the arm rests are a bit too low to be useful for resting my arms.
And the last issue concerns the placement of the luggage racks. Due to the much lower height inherent to building a bi-level car suited to fitting into the North Shore Tunnels, the overall clearance of the car is low- some particularly tall people on the train had to bow their heads a bit- There seems to be about 6'5" of clearance or so- and that means the luggage racks are tiny, can only fit a small briefcase, and are placed poorly. Now, I admit, when I rode this train yesterday, I had been awake for more than 24 hours. I'd admit that I was coming off a red-bull overdose. I'll admit that part of this was probably caused by the above factors. But the fact of the matter is, I, who at 5' 11", am not particularly tall, smashed myself in the side of the head on the luggage rack hard enough to be even more woozy. This may have influenced my entire review, to be honest.
But given their limited usability, their inconvenient and possibly dangerous positioning within the car, and the fact that a good percentage of their core riders are often woozy due to alcohol consumed in Penn Station, I wonder why they included the racks at all.
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